Tesco has completed a deal with CA ecoSoftware, a carbon accounting technology supplier, that will enable the retailer to track progress on emission reduction in advance of forthcoming carbon legislation.
A Tesco statement confirmed: "Tesco has implemented CA ecoSoftware to help increase the efficiency, speed and accuracy of its carbon accounting process, enabling the company to more effectively track progress in pursuit of its ambitious carbon reduction goals."
"Eco-friendly"', "sustainable" and "low carbon dioxide" are not just buzz words for international enterprises like French retailer Carrefour. They are part of their most ambitious and concrete targets for the future.
Thousands of lights, non-stop refrigeration facilities and large compounds of air conditioners make for a nice shopping environment, but they are also very energy-consuming.
In a bid to become more eco-friendly, big enterprises such as Carrefour and Wal-Mart are now implementing sophisticated technology to decrease that consumption.
Even as Carrefour plans to open 20-25 new stores in China, its focus will be on energy saving and environmental protection.
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Source: China Daily
Customers shop in a Wal-Mart store in Shanghai. Foreign retail chains are leading the way in developing environmentally friendly stores in China, according to China Chain Store and Franchise Association. [CFP]
International retailers are leading their domestic peers in environmental protection and energy-saving campaigns, a recent report by the China Chain Store and Franchise Association (CCFA) stated.
French retail giant Carrefour Group invested more than 200 million yuan in renovation and reconstruction of existing stores last year to make them more energy efficient.
Existing outlets are expected to reduce energy consumption by 15 percent after renovation and reconstruction.
Its new stores under construction are all energy-saving outlets. The energy consumption at these outlets will be 20 percent lower than old ones, according to the company.
US-based retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc has said that compared to a typical store in 2005, its new outlets consume 23 percent less electricity and 17 percent less water annually.
The CCFA report showed that energy-saving efforts by Chinese retailers focus mainly on saving electricity on air conditioning, lights and refrigeration.
Since 2007, many Chinese retailers have started renovations at existing stores, and some have expanded energy-conservation efforts to office areas, distribution locations and logistics centers.
Energy-saving lighting
The Ministry of Commerce has promoted an Energy Conservation Campaign among retailers since 2007 to help them reduce energy costs by 20 percent by 2010.
A CCFA survey said that from 2007 until 2008, an average retail enterprise invested 500,000 yuan to 3 million yuan for renovations of a store for environmental and energy purposes.
But the bulk of enterprises invested less than 500,000 yuan per store, according to the survey.
The survey said that retailers usually need one to three years to recover their investment.
About 81 percent of polled retailers regarded adoption of energy-saving technologies as the most effective way to reduce their energy consumption.
And 41 percent thought energy-saving management is also crucial, according to the report.
Using the energy consumption of China's top 100 retail companies in 2008, the CCFA reports that their 120,000 outlets can save 1.7 billion kWh of electricity and 1.6 million tons of carbon dioxide annually when they realize the 20 to 30 percent of energy reduction in renovated stores.
Retail chains also can guide their customers' way of shopping and promote environmental friendly and recycling ideas, according to the report.
In the first year of China's plastic bag ban, retailers helped the country reduce the use of more than 40 billion plastic bags.
Source: China Daily
Intomart research shows that the Dutch population does not yet know the advantages of LED lighting. 90% of the respondents does not know that LED light is more energy efficient, and also the life-time of 20 years is not known. As mentioned yesterday the glow bulb disappears from the Dutch retail landscape. The WNF and Nationale Postcode Loterij (National Lotery) work together in promoting energy-efficient lighting. All the participants of the campaign “What LED you” can obtain a free LED light at the Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn.
The MSC was founded in 1996 by the WNF .
Sustainable Fishing
Purely ecological
The new range of AH Puur & Eerlijk ecological products save the environment, reducing the packaging to a minimum and the building material are selected to be disolved earlier.
Two Ecological Certificates
The AH Puur & Eerlijk ecological brand have 2 ecological certificates: Nordic Swan and De Blauwe Engel (“The Blue Angel”). Both international certificates work together with the "Nederlandse Milieukeur", but have stronger regulations.
Regulations De Blauwe Engel Certificate
De Blauwe Engel is the German alternative of Nordic Swan. This quality mark also judges if the product is less damaging to the environment. The quality mark is one of the oldest and most famous ecoloical quality marks, founded back in 1978. The knowledge based is on the years of experience can be seen in the checks and strong regulations. Just like Nordic Swan the products with the quality mark of De Blauwe Engel save the environment.
Conditions Nordic Swan quality brand
An ecological product with Nordic Swan logo states that this products is one of the most environmental friendly products possible. The conditions to obtain a Nordic Ecolabel look at raw materials, production, materials and even the life cycle of the products. The production, quality and the functionality need to cumply high environmental standards. These criteria differ per group of products.
Source text and pictures: http://www.ah.nl/artikel?trg=assortiment/article.inleiding.ecologisch
A product can only be considered biological when an official organization checked if the product and processes cumply the rules. In The Netherlands the organization Skal is checking all the Dutch biological companies that they follow up the the strict rules for biological production. Only when they meet the standaards they will obtain the EKO-certificate. This certificate guarantees the consumers they buy real biological food products.
Every year each biological company gets a visit of an inspector, next to the unannounced visits. Skal checks the food, spaces, animals and stocks. Biological farms cannot use or posess artificial manure and chemical-synthetic insecticides. Animal welfare, the space and how the farmer takes care of the animals, is the main point of attention. The inspector can take samples of material to have it checked later on.
Not only the farms get visits from Skal, but also the biological manufacturers. The origen of the biological ingredients and raw material are checked. Biological bread for example needs to be made out of biological flour. The whole distribution channel from farmer to supermarket is checked, and if everything is allright the products will obtain the EKO-certificate for guaranteed biological product.
More information about the EKO-certificate
